Football: Thursday night update

If something were to happen to Kevin Riley in Saturday’s game, there’s no guarantee that it would be Brock Mansion replacing him.

Coach Jeff Tedford said Thursday night that the backup quarterback job is competitive and that it is being evaluated. He said Beau Sweeney has come on lately and is pushing Mansion for the No. 2 job.

“He’s throwing the ball well and has a great feel for the game,” Tedford said. “I think Beau’s progress — the learning curve has really increased. He’s really picked up on a lot of things and done a nice job in practice.”

Tedford said it’s nothing Mansion has done wrong. It’s just that Sweeney is playing well. When asked who the backup would be Saturday, he said “We have to talk about it.”

“Everybody does something well,” Tedford said. “But to make it fair, you always want to make it competitive. The evaluation process is important to make sure the competition is still there.”:

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In injury news, left guard Matt Summers-Gavin returned to practice after sitting out Wednesday with flu-like symptoms. He appears to be good to go for the game. Cornerback Syd’Quan Thompson, who missed Wednesday with tightness in his back, sat out again, and Tedford said Thompson now is “a little sick.”

As promised, Jahvid Best returned to practice in normal capacity and is fine. He appeared to be moving well near the end of practice.

It looks as though backup tight end Spencer Ladner will be out longer than expected with a strained knee. Tedford said it likely will be another three weeks, with the soonest he could return being after the bye week.

Jonathan Okanes

Jonathan Okanes is in his fourth year covering Cal's football team. Previously, he covered Cal's men's basketball team for four years. He can also be followed on Twitter at twitter.com/OkanesonCal.

if oregon doesn’t shut off our booth connection to the field, or tap into the connection and steal our calls. and if the officials don’t call any phantom pi, phantom ineligible receiver, or phantom late hit out of bounds calls, the bears will roll. if this game is close, just see the above. it happens too often in college football. and yes, if you play your a-game, it shouldn’t matter. but just like baseball players who get “respect” with the strike zone, and basketball players who get “respect” with a foul call, a rule is a rule, and a respectable sport doesn’t bend the rules for anyone. the integrity of big time sports is all but gone. let’s hope for fairness at autzen this weekend, but don’t be surprised if we get hosed on a few critical bad calls.

yeah, masoli will probably have a breakout game against us. it always seems to work out that way. oregon is not a great football team. we should be able to smoke them, but we usually play down to the level of our opponents on the road. we have this, usc, ucla, stanfurd, AND washington all on the schedule. they are all going to be extremely difficult games. ucla never loses at home to top 10 opponents, and we’ve twice been their victim down there. it’s all setting up for that again. i really hope tedford just sits these guys down and says “relax, have fun and go kick some ass.”

It’s cool to see the competition going on for back up QB because the starter has established himself as such a solid player and leader. Of course KR can and should improve. Nothing like talent and depth on the roster. Don’t forget true frosh Bridgford will be in the mix as well for QB after this year. The cupboard is stocked.
Pac 10 opener, can’t wait!
Go Bears

Well, with vareen and Riley back, we’re
gonna be pretty sweet next year, too, but I’m definitely pulling for them now. My fingernails are still recovering from last week,
though, and that was just Minnesota. The things that get me the most are when the coach gets too conservative (a tedford staple) or when the officials take the game out of our hands. It happens all too often, and I’m sorry bit I’m jaded. For years I said the kings lakers playoff series was fixed and everyone laughed at me. Finally, the truth came out. The same things happen in football. Did you see so Carolina last night? Turning off the booth power on ole miss? Happened to us in Tennessee too. Nobody seems to care. For once, I’d like to see a coach just walk off with his team and say, screw this. It’ll never happen.

The line has been bet down from 7 to 5 1/2. I think the money going on Oregon is for 2 reasons:

1) Bettors think Cal is looking past Oregon and already thinking about $c. In the LA papers PC rightly took a beating for the loss to UW. It was his job to make sure his team didn’t overlook UW after the big Ohio State game.

X’s, O’s and game calling will not be a problem with JT, Ludwig and Gregory. I think the big test is can JT can get the team to focus on Oregon and only Oregon.

2) Autzen and our record on the road.

But I think JT is improving as a Head Coach. This is the Bear’s year. Got a Benjy (+10 for the vig) on Cal.

I think Minnesota, while not an elite team this year will end up around 8 wins and in a bowl game, so I don’t know what all the fuss is about. We beat a solid team on the road.

Based on JO’s reports on the team, it seems like Cal players are more relaxed and confident than the Cal fans. Maybe being in the 4th grade the last time CAL had a losing record is better than being an old suffering blue.

Relax Cal fans, if the crowd is the most worrisome component of this weeks game in Oregon, that’s a GOOD thing!

Continuing the tradition of pessimism I like to point out that for some reason every time we play the Ducks we come out the game with an injury to a key offensive player. ’07 Nate (ankle sprain), ’08 Riley (concussion). I am more worried about that than the outcome of the game since I feel confident that though this could be a tough, close 4 quarter game Cal will prevail. Obviously I am worried that Best (or Riley again) are not the recipient of this fate this year as we desperately need both of them the coming week. My worries have been slightly inflamed by the talk that has been coming out of the Ducks as the game nears on: how they are going to tackle and tackle Best like their lives depend on it, how they need to hit him and gang tackle him and so on. Now I understand this is football and thats what you do. My concern is the Ducks are going to come into this game crazed with tackling Best to death and that might lead to some late hits, hits after play is dead, hits out of bounce, in general freakish type of playing. Cal fans lets pray that we come out of this game healthy, because that is far more important than winning it.

Sounds like too much woody allen in the cal fans. Big D you’re right. Too many are all trying to find a negative in a very positive time for Cal. We control our destiny. The last 2 times we went to oregon we played very good teams. We beat 1 and almost beat another (ot loss). WE are better than we were those years, and they are not as good this year. Enjoy the good while it lasts.

It was late second half I think on the second or third to last possession. Erin Andrews brought it up, and they talked about it for a few seconds and then left it at that, as usual. Because whoa to any announcer who speculates foul play. I realize it could have been a coincidence, but the odds are really slim. Also, yes, someone in sac Apparently poisoned the Kobe beef. That was unacceptable, too, although that was apparently just some douchie in the hotel kitchen. It’s not like the kings knew about it.